October 31, 2008

Why would anyone want to mask the apple flavor of applesauce with that of strawberry? Or cherry? Or peach? It baffles the mind, but the products are out there. I hoisted some from work (and by hoisted, I mean salvaged from the bottom of the trash can) and produced this:

Maybe I should be known as the Rescuer of Rejected Foods.
Although I like my applesauce to taste more like apples and less like strawberry, these muffins were undeniably delicious. What's more, the pink of what shall henceforth be known as strapplesauce(not to be confused with scrapplesauce, which would just be disgusting) made them a lovely color.

The recipe I used was based on an applesauce cake from the now-defunct blog Ooh you tasty little things. Even with the overwhelming strawberry flavor (or, dare I say, because of it), they were about 424 times better than my previous attempt at applesauce muffins.

(good news--apparently, my sheep is preggo!)

A few days ago, I came across a marvelous idea on Shari's blog Whisk. She baked her muffins in cookie cutters! I thought it was a stroke of genius, so I tried it out with some of my extra batter. My cookie cutter collection consists of two sheep, two leaves, and five hearts. I was a little concerned about the nooks and crannies in the sheep and leaves, but I gave them a try anyway and was pleasantly surprised.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients together and stir until smooth. Spoon the thick batter into prepared baking pans, whether mini muffins (I got 48), regular muffins, mini loaves, or cake.
Bake for 15 minutes for mini muffins, or around 20-25 minutes for regular muffins.

I don't know we made peach applesauce this year & it was a real nice change up from regular. It didn't so much mask the apple flavor but accent it.I've never thought of using cookie cutters for muffins, clever

I don't own even one cookie cutter...shame on me! Now I have the excuse I've been needing to buy some since I'm too lazy to roll out cookies that would require cutters. Muffins! Thank you Grace! And also pancakes! Thanks for that idea RecipeGirl.

Cute shapes! I do agree with you that applesauce is a wonderful flavor, to be served or baked all on its own. Heck, I even made an applesauce cake for my dog on his birthday back in May - pictures on my blog.

She says shyly with her head down, "Uh me and my Mom have been making strapplesauce for years. We make regular apple sauce, strapple sauce and rasple sauce (yup, raspberry). I like them. THey are a marriage of great flavors. So now I can try your idea because I have pints of the stuff.

The Strapplesauce muffin turned out better than plain applesauce muffins...mmmmm, that's interesting. It does look good Grace, I'm glad it turned out good for you. Injecting apples with grape juice is way weirder that strapple sauce, that doesn't even sound good!

Ah Grace, You never fail to make me laugh and feel hungry! Strapplesauce?!!! I actually laughed out loud at your 424 times reference. I love that you have sheep shaped cutters! The recipe is great, too! I was surprised to see the cocoa; I bet combined with the cinnamon, these flavors really came out great. YUM!

this post just cracked me up! congrats on your sheep. i hope your blog has little sheep babies in a few months! the pink color really is pretty... but i agree with you about the flavored applesauce... i can barely tolerate cinnamon in mine... i like it plain and simple :)

Well, Grace, my little one is on the same page as you. Trying to be fun and different I picked up an 8 pack of the "Strawberry-apple sauce." My daughter looked at me as though I'd lost my mind. So, in my cupboard now sits 7 individual packets of the stuff. Thank you for rescuing them from a life stuck in the pantry!

ok, so dumb question, I'm allowed one per year, yes?you use the cookie cutters, but doesn't the batter fall out of the bottom?I used to have baby goats on my dad's farm and wild turkeys, so congrats, I know how fun that stuff is.

Strawberry applesauce? Egads! That's a new one for me, being not much of an applesauce-eater. I like your "waste not, want not" philosophy, though, and I applaud your attempt to make the world's first muffin-sheep :)